Nehru Report Was Published In

[Brian Bezdicek]

Interestinglythe Committee that drafted the Report consisted of individuals who had played or would later play a key role in drafting other important constitutional documents: Annie Besant was chairman of the committee that drafted the Commonwealth of India Bill, 1925; Tej Bahadur Sapru was chairman of the committee that drafted the Sapru Committee Report in 1945; M.R. Jayakar and Jawaharlal Nehru would go on to become members of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the Constitution of India, 1950.

1. India shall have the same constitutional status in the community of nations, known as the British Empire, as the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa and the Irish Free State, with a Parliament having powers to make laws for the peace, order and good government of India, and an executive responsible to that Parliament; and shall be styled and known as the Commonwealth of India.

2. This Act and all laws made by the Parliament of the Commonwealth thereunder shall be binding on the courts and people of every province, and of every part of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of the Indian Legislature or of any province or in any Act of the United Kingdom extending to British India; and the laws of the Commonwealth shall be enforced in all Indian territorial waters.

4. (i) All powers of government and all authority, legislative, executive and judicial, are derived from the people and the same shall be exercised in the Commonwealth of India through the organisations established by or under, and due process of this constitution.

(ii) No person shall be deprived of his liberty, nor shall his dwelling or property be entered, sequestered or confiscated, save in accordance with law. All titles to private and personal property lawfully acquired and enjoyed at the establishment of the Commonwealth are hereby guaranteed.

(iv) The right of free expression of opinion, as well as the right to assemble peaceably and without arms, and to form associations or unions, is hereby guaranteed for purposes not opposed to public order or morality.

(v) All citizens in the Commonwealth of India have the right to free elementary education without any distinction of caste or creed in the matter of admission into any educational institutions, maintained or aided by the state, and such right shall be enforceable as soon as due arrangements shall have been made by competent authority. Provided that adequate provisions shall be made by the State for imparting public instruction in primary schools to the children of members of minorities of considerable strength in the population through the medium of their own language and in such script as in vogue among them.Explanation:- This provision will not prevent the State from making the teaching of the language of the Commonwealth obligatory in the said schools.

(x) Every citizen shall have the right to a writ of habeas corpus, Such right may be suspended on case of war or rebellion by an Act of the central legislature, or, if the legislature is not in session by the Governor-General-in-Council, and in such case he shall report the suspension to the legislature, at the earliest possible opportunity for such action as it may deem fit.

(xi) There shall be no state religion for the Commonwealth of India or for any province in the Commonwealth, nor shall the state either directly or indirectly endow any religion or give any preference or impose any disability on account of religious belief or religious status.

(xv) Freedom of combination and association for the maintenance and improvement of labour and economic conditions is guaranteed to everyone and of all occupations. All agreements and measures tending to restrict or obstruct such freedom are illegal.

(xvii) Parliament shall make suitable laws for the maintenance of health and fitness for work of all citizens, securing of a living wage for every worker, the protection of motherhood, welfare of children, and the economic consequences of old age, infirmity and unemployment and Parliament shall also make laws to ensure fair rent and fixity and permanence of tenure to agricultural tenants.

8. The Senate shall consist of 200 members to be elected by the Provincial Councils, a specific number of seats being allotted to each province on the basis of population, subject to a minimum. The election shall be held by the method of proportional representation with the single transferable vote. (The Hare system).

9. The House of Representatives shall consist of 500 members to be elected by constituencies determined by law. Every person of either sex who has attained the age of 21, and is not disqualified by law, shall be entitled to vote. Provided that Parliament shall have the power to increase the number of members from time to time if necessary.

(3) The Governor-General may appoint such times and places for holding the sessions of either chamber of the Indian Legislature as he thinks fit, and may also from time to time, by notification or otherwise, prorogue such sessions.

(5) All questions in either chamber shall be determined by a majority of votes of members present, other than the presiding member who shall, however, have and exercise a casting vote in the case of an equality of votes.

11. There shall be a president of each House of Parliament who shall be a member of the House and shall be elected by the House. There shall also be a deputy president of each House who shall also be a member of the House and be similarly elected.

12. The privileges, immunities and powers to be held, enjoyed and exercised by the Senate and by the House of Representatives and by themembers thereof respectively shall be such as are from time to time defined by Act of Parliament of the Commonwealth.

(d) for all persons employed or serving in or belonging to the Royal Indian Marine Service or the Indian Navy. For greater certainty, but not so as to restrict the generality of the foregoing terms of this section, it is hereby declared that notwithstanding anything in this Act the legislative authority of the Parliament of the Commonwealth extends to all matters coming within the classes of subject hereinafter enumerated and specified in Schedule I attached hereto.

14. A (a). Incases of great emergency and in matters of controversies between provinces or a province and an Indian State the Central Government and the Parliament have all the powers necessary and ancillary including the power to suspend or annul the acts, executive and legislative, of a Provincial Government.

15. Provision may be made by rules under this Act for regulating the course of business and the preservation of order in the chambers of the Indian Legislature, and as to the persons to preside at the meetings of the House of Representatives in the absence of the president and the deputy president; and the rules may provide for the number of members required to constitute aquorum, and for prohibiting or regulating the asking of questions on, and the discussion of, any subject specified in the rules.

(iii) Bills affecting the public debt or for the appropriation of revenues or monies or for imposing taxation shall be introduced only by a member of the executive council and can only originate in the House of Representatives.

(ii) Except as otherwise provided under this Act, a bill shall not be deemed to have been passed by Parliament unless it has been agreed to by both Houses, either without amendments or with such amendments only as may be agreed to by both Houses.

(iii) If any bill which has been passed by the House of Representatives is not, within six months after the passage of the bill by that House, passed by the Senate, either without amendments or with such amendments as may be agreed to by both Houses, the Governor-General shall, on resolution passed by either House to that effect, refer the matter for decision to a joint sitting of both Houses. The members present at any such joint sitting may deliberate and shall vote together upon the bill as last proposed by the House of Representatives and upon amendments, if any, which have been made therein by one House of Parliament and not agreed to by the other; and any such amendments which are affirmed by a majority of the total number of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives present at such sitting, shall be taken to have been duly passed by both Houses of Parliament.

(c) The Executive Council shall be collectively responsible to theHouse ofRepresentatives for all matters concerning the department of the Commonwealth administered by members of the Executive Council and generally for all advice tendered by it to the Governor-General.

24. Until Parliamentotherwise provides, the appointment and removal of all otherofficers of the executive government of the Commonwealth shall be vested in the Governor-General-in-Council, unless the appointment is delegated by the Governor-General-in-Council, or by a law of the Commonwealth, to some other authority.

26. The Commonwealth shall have the power to appoint High Commissioners and other foreign representatives similar to that exercised by Canada and other dominions. Such appointments shall be made by the Governor-General-in-Council who shall also make provision by rules for their pay, powers and duties, and the conditions of employment.

27. (1) The Auditor-General in India shall be appointed by the Governor-General-in-Council who shall by rules make provision for his pay, powers and duties, and the conditions of employment, and for the discharge of his duties in the case of a temporary vacancy or absence from duty.

(2) Subject to any rules made by the Governor-General-in-Council, no office may be added to or withdrawn from the public service and the emoluments of no posts may be varied except after consultation with such finance authority as may be designated in the rules, being an authority of the province or of the Commonwealth according as it is or is not under the control of a local government.

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